"A Lions home-opener on the first weekend of the schedule would have been a richly deserved reward for the team and its fans. It also would have drawn a crowd of 35,000 to 40,000 and given the league some momentum heading into (commissioner Mark) Cohon's first season.
"Instead, we get the opening act of a double bill played as a matinee before 29,157 in Toronto."
For point of comparision, official attendance for the Lions Week 1 home opener in 2006, when the team was everyone's pick to capture the Grey Cup after waylaid by a Printers jam in '05 was 27,539, less than what the Argonauts had out last night.
The fanbase in Vancouver tends to be very bandwagonny and fair-weather, so even with the great team they had in 2006, they didn't get a crowd near that 35,000 to 40,000 range until Week 10 in the middle of the August, during a win streak. (Don't judge them -- if you were lucky enough to live out there, you'd take a wait-and-see approach before you committed a few months to following a sports team.)
That's just the central Canadian wisdom talking... as defending champions in 2005, the Argos opened the season at home against the Lions. Last season, Edmonton played their opener on the road in Calgary, so there was no early start from back East. The Lions might have deserved to be accommodated differently.
Overall, the league lucked out with two very good games on opening night. The Lions' two-point win over Toronto featured more gamebreaking kick returns than about half of the 2006 season, while the 39-39 Winnipeg-Edmonton tie saw Eskimos coach Danny Maciocia show his unique genius for figuring out how not to win a game where his quarterback threw five touchdowns and his starting running back Tyler Ebell couldn't be tackled by the Winnipeg defence.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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There is definitely a whiny, us against the world tone to my home province at times. You are also dead right about the attendance -- Vancouver fans are with you win or tie, and it wasn't until later into '06 that the Lions started to draw well.
Having said that, it was a bit of a kick in the chops for the defending Grey Cup champs to start their season playing a mid-week road game on the other side of the country. That was a 3:30 PM start in Vancouver on a Thursday afternoon - I think the Lions deserved a little more love than that. Then again, that's what you get with an 8 team League.
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